Finding Fort Gillem Base Ball Grounds in Nashville

Nashville "base ball" began in earnest in 1866. Although informal practices and matches had been played on "the flats" of Edgefield (present day site of Nissan Stadium) as early as 1860 and Edgefield would become one of the premier sites for the national game in the post-Civil War era as the home grounds of the Rock City and Phoenix Clubs of Nashville, Nashville's other prominent 1860s base ball grounds was the Fort Gillem Base Ball Grounds.

Fort Gillem, a strategic defensive point to secure Nashville from advancing Rebel forces during the American Civil War, is long gone. It was located in the vicinity of present day Jackson Street near 17th and 18th Avenues, to the northwest of the Capitol building. The fort, built by Gainesboro (Jackson County), Tennessee native General Alvan Cullem Gillem and his 10th Tennessee Volunteer Regiment (USA) , was about 120 feet square with narrow ditches, walled with stone, 6 feet high, with emplacements for eight artillery pieces.

Gillem had cut his teeth in the Third Seminole War following his graduation from West Point in 1851. Thereafter, he was stationed on the western frontier of Texas. The Civil War brought him back to Tennessee where he spent the bulk of the war serving in Union occupied Nashville before taking the field and serving in various East Tennessee campaigns in 1864 to secure the region for its loyal Unionists from Rebel incursions. His most notable Civil War exploits involved driving Confederate forces led by John C. Vaughn out of Morristown, and the state for that matter, as well as surprising and killing Rebel cavalryman John H. Morgan in Greeneville. Although the fort that came to be bear his name was officially renamed Fort Sill in early 1863 in honor of Brigadier General Joshua W. Sill, who was killed at the Battle of Stones River, Nashvillians continued to refer to the earthworks as Fort Gillem.

General Alvan Cullem Gillem (USA)

Gen. Gillem, Mount Olivet Cemetery, Nashville

The fort was abandoned by Union troops after the war; however, due to the surrounding lands having been largely cleared for its construction, it was not long before a rising class of professional Nashvillians found a new use for the grounds. Throughout 1866 and 1867, the remnants of Fort Gillem was claimed as the home grounds of the Cumberland Base Ball Club. It was here, on the Fort Gillem Base Ball Grounds on the afternoon of April 21, 1866, according to the extant sources, that the first organized base ball match in Nashville was to be played between the Rock City and Cumberland clubs. It should be noted, however, that a search of the city's newspapers have failed to yield the outcome of the April 21 match. A newspaper report later in the season lists a total of four matches between the two clubs, but does not mention April 21. Was it a friendly scrimmage between two "green" clubs instead of an official game? Was it called off due to rain or something else? Who knows? But if the two clubs did play (and a survey of non-digitized Nashville newspapers could yield the answer), it would represent the first known organized base ball match in Nashville and might be presumed that the Cumberland Club claimed the victory. In fact, in every instance in which the two teams are reported to have played, the Cumberland never lost at the hands of the Rock City, winning by an average of 40.5 runs.

Announcement of first organized base ball game in Nashville, Union and American, April 21, 1866

A number of prominent matches were played on the Fort Gillem Base Ball Grounds in the immediate postwar years (which, by the way of a disclaimer, is the extent of my research into Nashville base ball). Rock City and Cumberland vied for the first Davidson County championship during the spring and summer season of 1866 with the latter taking the title. On July 31, 1866, Fort Gillem hosted the first match in what was billed as the "Championship of the South" between the Cumberland and Louisville Base Ball Clubs. In this first game, as in the second and deciding match in the series, the Kentucky state champs won an easy victory, this one, 39-23 over the Tennessee ballists.

Before long, scores of base ball grounds sprung up around the city, some on the grounds of former Union forts such as Fort Houston, where the Nashville Base Ball Club began their successful state championship run in 1868 against the Knoxville Holston Base Ball Club. As other grounds were fitted up for base ball, the American Missionary Association and a number of prominent educators had designs for Fort Gillem in the summer of 1867. Their vision included building a school with the expressed purpose of training teachers to help educate both children and adults among the South's nearly four million recently freed people. From that idea came Fisk University. In 1876, the institution's first permanent academic building, Jubilee Hall, was finally completed on what was Fort Gillem. Funds to erect the building had been raised in large part due to the Fisk Jubilee Singers' widely popular tour of Europe in 1873.



Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee

Next time I'm in Nashville I plan to finally visit Fisk University and take a stroll of the campus. Just maybe, if I strain my ears, I'll hear the sounds of a bat striking a ball, the three cheers given for the ladies in attendance, and the sounds of corks beginning to pop as the Cumberland and Louisville Base Ball Clubs set aside any hard feelings incurred over the first game for the 1866 "Championship of the South" to celebrate one's company, which, was a significant part of the nineteenth century amateur game, an admirable quality that distinguished what was once, albeit briefly, a largely gentleman's game from that of the hypercompetitive modern game.

Sources: A Question of Manhood: A Reader in U.S. Black Men's History and Masculinity, Vol. 1 (Indiana Univ. Press, 1999, 558; Tennessee State Library and Archives

"Let Us Have Base Ball Clubs": A Brief Sketch of Rock City Base Ball Club & the Origins of Base Ball in Tennessee

After publishing my brief biographical sketch on Cornelius "Con" Cassidy earlier this week, Christopher "Books" Ryland suggested that Cassidy may have been the same "Cassidy" that appeared on the roster of the Rock City Base Ball Club (1866-1867). I immediately checked my Nashville files and sure enough, a "Cassidy" or "Cassady" appeared in two Rock City box scores that ran in the Nashville Republican Banner and another in the Union and American in 1866. I had checked the Nashville City Directories for 1865-1870 before and Cassidy appeared as early as 1866, but listed as "C.C. Cassady." Subsequent directories list him as C.C. Cassidy and no other Cassadys appear in city directories or Nashville newspapers during this period. Given other extant sources, it is reasonably safe to presume that the Cassady on the Rock City roster is indeed Cornelius C. Cassidy and that the newspaper editor and whoever compiled the list of names for the city directory simply misprinted an "a" for an "i" in his name.


Cornelius C. Cassidy, 1st Lt 136th NY

As a native New Yorker, where base ball was played widely before the war, and someone who served in the Union Army, where base ball was frequently played in camp, one wonders if Cassidy might have been exposed to the national game and its rules prior to his arrival in Nashville. One could let their mind wonder further to conjure up thoughts of Cassidy perhaps being one of the founding fathers of the Rock City Base Ball Club. Unfortunately, a survey of the Nashville newspapers in 1866, which did cover numerous games that were played in and around the city, does not seem to yield any origin stories for the Rock City Club. Moreover, these reports typically consisted only of a few sentences with the names of both clubs who played and on whose grounds, the score and possibly even a box score with last names only, and a few other nuggets of information. Perhaps further research will yield fruit on Rock City's origins; however, for now, a very brief sketch of the Rock City Club and some of Nashville's earliest clubs that they played can be developed.

First, it must be noted that base ball was not a new phenomenon that arrived in Nashville after the American Civil War, as it did in many other Southern cities and towns (many returning Rebels had first witnessed the game as prisoners of war in Union camps and many former Union soldiers who had played base ball settled in the South after the war). Base ball was played in Southern cities such as Louisville, Richmond, New Orleans, as well as both Memphis and Nashville prior to the commencement of hostilities in April 1861. Although it is impossible to discern how often base ball was played in Nashville prior to the Civil War, there is evidence that practices and/or unorganized games were held in Edgefield, which was located on the east bank of the Cumberland River directly opposite the city of Nashville. According to the July 25, 1860 issue of the Republican Banner (see image below), "a party" of young men were engaged in the sport of base ball. It is interesting that the editor noted that the "early closing of the stores gives fine opportunity to the young men engaged in mercantile pursuits." One facet of the origins of the national game in the antebellum North is that those who were the first to formally organize base ball clubs tended to be white males in their twenties and thirties who were among the professional class or rather the middle and upper class of society. And these early base ballists only played matches against clubs comprised of ballists of a similar class, race, and age. In time, however, other clubs consisting of various classes, ages, and races appeared but they tended to play among themselves. That facet of amateur base ball held true through the end of the Civil War and into the first couple years of Reconstruction. But that quickly evolved in the post-Civil War era as newspaper accounts document people of all classes, races, and ages engaged in the game. Still, wherever base ball was first organized, even in the immediate post-Civil War years in the South, one typically sees evidence of the national game being first organized by the city and town's elites, before other non-elite clubs were organized shortly thereafter. This pattern that characterized the amateur era of base ball rings true in Tennessee as the national game suddenly appeared and reappeared, as in the case of both Memphis and Nashville, between late 1865 and the Spring of 1867.     


Nashville Republican Banner, July 25, 1860

No doubt Con Cassidy would have been considered among the professional middle class by the time he arrived in Nashville. His father had managed to eek out a comfortable living in Mount Morris, NY in the western part of the state and was able to send all of his children to school where they received a good education. It is difficult to say with any certainty what professional track Cassidy might have been on when the Civil War broke out, but he was momentarily living in the home of Reuben P. Wisner, a prominent lawyer and Western NY railroad magnate, who possibly sponsored him as he came of age on the eve of the American Civil War. Cassidy enlisted in the 136th NY and rose up the ranks to become a 1st Lt. by the time he was mustered out of service in June 1865. Perhaps his educational training and work for Wisner played a part in his obtaining a position as a clerk for a local mercantile interest when he arrived in Nashville in late 1865 or 1866. But more so, his service as an officer in the Union Army might have contributed as well. Nashville may have been home to a sound majority that chose to secede from the Union in June 1861 and thus fought for or sympathized with the Confederacy; however, at war's end the Unionists firmly controlled the city's government and had ever since the Union Army took the city in early 1862. Moreover, Cassidy's military service no doubt aided him in securing a position on the exclusive Nashville Metropolitan Police Force in October 1867.

The first evidence of the Rock City Base Ball Club to appear in the historical record is the mention of the organization of the Cumberland Base Ball Club, which would become the premier club in the city in 1866. The April 21, 1866 edition of the Nashville Daily Union notes only the formal structure of the Cumberland Club's officers, but concludes with a mention that a match game is to be played later that day between the Cumberland and Rock City Clubs. Thus, the Rock City Club, for which Nashville was known as the "Rock City" in the 19th century, predated the Cumberland Club. It may be assumed that the Rock City Club was the first to formally organize in the city after the American Civil War. While there appears no follow-up on this match (a survey of newspapers not digitized on Newspapers.com, however, may yield results), later editions of Nashville newspapers reveal that the Rock City and Cumberland Clubs, both organized and fielded by members of the city's professional class, played several games against one another. It may be that these were the only two clubs for much of the spring and early summer of 1866 and it is in keeping with the custom of amateur antebellum that they would play one another until another club comprised of local professionals was organized. Yet the national game evolved much quicker in the South in the post-Civil War era than it had in the North in the antebellum era. What played out between 1865 and 1867 in the South was essentially the evolution of the game from the mid-1840s-1861 in the antebellum North. By 1868, in Tennessee and elsewhere, the "elite" clubs began to play teams comprised of members from the laboring class as well as juveniles. But, even as African Americans organized their own base ball clubs, as early as 1867 in Tennessee, the national game remained very much a segregated game.

Con Cassidy's performance as a Phoenix ballist in 1868, which led to him being awarded a prize belt valued at twenty-five dollars by his teammates for the most runs scored for the club that season, might also be explained by the fact that base ball may not have been new for Cassidy as a member of the Phoenix Club. It is quite possible that if Cassidy did indeed play a season of base ball for the Rock City Club in 1866, then he had acquired a knowledge of the game that translated to his abilities with a bat at the dish in 1868 (I should note here, for the record, that no evidence of Cassidy appears in any 1867 reports/box scores after the Rock City Club disbanded). According to the historical record, the Rock City Club did not do so well against the Cumberland Club who dominated them in a series of matches that played out between April and September 1866. In fact, the April 21 match aside, since no report on its outcome exists, Rock City lost every single match they played against the Cumberland Club by an average of 40.5 runs per game. Available box scores reveal that Cassidy, on average, either led the club or tied in most runs scored per match. Thus Cassidy was a quick and successful learner of the national game.

Nashville Republican Banner, May 22, 1866

Nashville Union and American, May 23, 1866

Another standout ballist on the Rock City Club alongside Cassidy was Charles Theodore Flagg, who had arrived from Chicago at war's end. Flagg had served in Company A of the 19th Illinois, engaged in heavy fighting at both the Battles of Stones River and Chickamauga, which suggests that the Rock City Club might have been formed mostly of former Union soldiers considering Cassidy and a couple of other Rock City ballists have been identified as having served in the Union Army. Once in Nashville, Flagg worked as a coopersmith, who, tragically died while on a job in Clarksville in a freak railroad accident in late September 1868 when his head struck a bridge, killing him instantly.

Nashville Republican Banner, November 21, 1866

Besides their main rivals, the Cumberland Club of Nashville, Rock City played two matches against the Stonewall Club. The latter club were determined to claim the championship of Davidson County and challenged Rock City, even though the Cumberland Club boasted that they had earned that title by besting Rock City in a series of matches earlier in 1866. The Stonewall Club exhibited their prowess in the garden soundly beating Rock City by an average of 16 runs in two reported matches. The Cumberland agreed to play Stonewall on November 30, 1866 to determine which club was the best in Davidson. Although not billed as a best of three county championship series, Cumberland defeated Stonewall 56 to 43. The Cumberland Club then disbanded with a perfect record against Tennessee clubs. The only defeats Cumberland ever suffered in the garden came at the hand of the much superior Louisville Base Ball Club. In a series billed as the "Championship of the South," the champion ball clubs of both Tennessee and Kentucky met first in Nashville on the grounds of the Cumberland with Louisville winning 39 to 23. Two weeks later, the two clubs met in Louisville where the Cumberland suffered a brutal defeat, losing 71 to 11. Prior to the second and what would be the deciding game for the "Championship of the South," a friendly "rag tag" game was played between members of three Louisville clubs on one side and a combination of Cumberland and Rock City ballists on the other team. A delegation of three members of the Rock City Club (not named in the newspapers) had accompanied the Cumberlanders to Louisville for the second, and what would be deciding, match.

In the end, the records reveal that the Rock City ballists played at least ten matches with either a simple final score or complete box score included in newspaper reports for eight of those ten games. Of those eight games, Rock City compiled a 2-6 record. Rock City's only victories came at the expense of two relatively inexperienced teams, the Eureka and Flynn Base Ball Clubs (another pattern of 19th century amateur base ball that holds true is that it often took a club to get a couple matches under their belt before a team of "green" ballists would begin to catch on to the rules and nuances of a barehanded game).

One last question not yet explored in this sketch that circles back around to the first recorded account of base ball being played in Nashville, and, for that matter, the state of Tennessee, is the question "Where did the Rock City Base Ball Club play?"

Considering that they were likely the first base ball club to organize in Nashville in the post-Civil War era, it is not surprising that their club, once organized, would establish their home grounds on the same ground that the earliest practices and/or unorganized matches were played--across the Cumberland River in Edgefield. It was in Edgefield, on "the flats" along the east bank of the Cumberland River, that the garden was prepared by the ballists themselves, and which the Rock City and later Phoenix Clubs of Nashville would call their home grounds. Although the historical record indicates that the first match between the Rock City and Cumberland Clubs scheduled for the afternoon of April 21, 1866 was to be played elsewhere (more in a future post!), it still holds true that the ground on which Nissan Stadium stands today, the home of the Tennessee Titans professional football team, can be claimed to be the site on which base ball was first played in 1860--even if unorganized--in not only Nashville (assuming we have annexed 1860s Edgefield for Nashville--sorry you Edgefieldians!), but also the state of Tennessee.

Satellite view over looking Nissan Stadium, the site where base ball was first played in Tennessee

As early as 1866, Nashville newspapers offered clear clues that can help point us directly to the site on which the Rock City (April 1866-May 1867) and Phoenix Clubs (1867-1868) would play base ball. After playing their first match on the home grounds of the Cumberland, Rock City and Cumberland played both the second and third matches in their rivalry in Edgefield, on the Rock City Club's home grounds. The May 22, 1866 edition of the Republican Banner is the first to note that the game was played near the Suspension Bridge, a significant clue as Nashville in 1866 had only three bridges over the Cumberland River; two of which were railroad bridges and the third, a suspension bridge. A quick survey of maps of Nashville in 1866, as well as skimming histories of Nashville, reveals that the suspension bridge was located to the east of the capitol building and connected the city with Edgefield. Moreover, the third match report that appeared in the June 22, 1866 edition of the Republican Banner (see image below) adds further clarity in confirming the location of the field by noting that the two clubs played on "the flats on the right of the Suspension Bridge." If one was standing on the Nashville bank of the Cumberland River, looking across the river and to the right of the suspension bridge at Edgefield, today, one would be looking at Nissan Stadium or possibly its parking lot. This is the site of the Edgefield Base Ball grounds where the Rock City and Phoenix Clubs played their home matches and it is the site of where base ball originated in the state of Tennessee in 1860.  

Nashville Republican Banner, May 22, 1866



Nashville Republican Banner, June 22, 1866



A view of the suspension bridge looking towards Nashville from Edgefield. The caption on the photo itself is difficult to read but it appears to have been taken in the early 1800s. 
I can't believe I am about to cite this, but I found this image on Pinterest!

A view of the bridge from Nashville looking eastward towards Edgefield, TSLA

Brief history on the suspension bridge connecting Nashville and Edgefield:
In 1850, a suspension bridge was designed by architect Adolphus Heiman, which was to be 700 feet long and 110 feet above the Cumberland River's low water mark. This structure was built at the present day Woodland Street Bridge. It was, however, destroyed in 1862 as Rebel armies cut the suspension cables as they fled the city ahead of the arrival of advancing Union forces. Shortly after the war, a new bridge was built using the same support towers that remained standing. The new bridge to Edgefield opened in June 1866, thus making it much easier for residents of Nashville to attend the games in Edgefield. The suspension bridge stood until a newer, much durable bridge was erected in 1886. This bridge was christened the Woodland Street Bridge and remained in service 80 years until a new Woodland Street Bridge, the current one, opened on December 1, 1966. This was the first Cumberland River bridge built under the Metropolitan Government.

Bridge source information: Debie Cox, nashvillehistory.blogspot.com

Cornelius "Con" C. Cassidy: Phoenix Club of Nashville Ballist

In the summer of 1868, the Phoenix and Nashville Base Ball Clubs vied for supremacy of Davidson County. The Nashville Club was the defending county champions having soundly defeated the Phoenix 53-29 in the deciding match of the 1867 series. Naturally, these two rivals, the best clubs in the county, challenged one another to a best of three series for the 1868 championship that was played over the course of five weeks. Custom of the time dictated that for a championship each club would play on their own home grounds for the first two matches with the third, if necessary, to be played at a neutral site. Moreover, each match was to be scheduled approximately two weeks apart from one another. The first two matches in the 1868 series were split, with the Phoenix taking the first 42-32 and the Nashville Club roaring back in the second match for a 63-43 victory. The third match was played on neutral ground in Edgefield. This time the Phoenix claimed the title of Davidson County besting their rival 38-33. Despite the Phoenix having won the championship, both clubs would seek a state championship series against the defending state title holders, the Knoxville Holston Base Ball Club.

 

The Phoenix were first to issue their challenge; however, the Holstons were not an active club at the time. They had disbanded following their 1867 state championship over the Mountain City Club of Chattanooga with the members devoting their time to their individual business interests. A local Knoxville editor, essentially a Holston booster given the amount of coverage he gave the Holstons in his paper in 1867, began running a host of articles in an attempt to entice the Holstons to come out of retirement. It must have worked because by the late summer of 1868, the Holstons were practicing on a weekly basis and soon returned to the garden in a series of matches with juvenile clubs to shake off the rust. By the time the Holstons were ready to defend their state title, they accepted the challenge from the Nashville Club instead of the Phoenix. The current Davidson County champs must have been incensed by the Holston Club's decision to play the Nashville Club because the Phoenix immediately sent word via the press that they were ready to play their Nashville rivals to confirm that they were indeed the state's superior club after the Holstons received a thumping from Nashville 34-10 in the first match of the 1868 state championship. Whether the Phoenix Club ever got satisfaction by playing the Nashville Club after the latter wrestled the state title from the Holstons in the third and final match is unknown. Though no matches have been found between the two Nashville rival clubs following the 1868 state championship series, the sources indicate that the Phoenix continued to meet semi-monthly in their room at Police Headquarters throughout the summer and into the fall. It was at Police Headquarters, where Cornelius ("Con" as he was known) C. Cassidy worked as a member of the Metropolitan Police Force, that the Phoenix ballists awarded their teammate a fine prize belt valued at twenty-five dollars for having tallied the most runs for the 1868 season.

 

Nashville Republican Banner, August 6, 1868

Although I have spent most of my time researching "base ball" in East Tennessee and have compiled a number of names along with biographies for ballists with both the Knoxville Holstons and Knoxville Knoxvilles, a scarcity of box scores for matches played in and around Nashville in 1867 and 1868 have made it difficult to identify specific ballists who played for the Phoenix. Besides the club's secretary, H.F. Roll, who announced club meetings in the press and issued challenges to various clubs, the only Phoenix ballist I have been able to identify at this point in time is Con Cassidy thanks to a brief mention in the newspaper of the belt being awarded to him. I am sure further research by either myself or another will yield more results; however, armed with the name of Con Cassidy linked to the Phoenix Base Ball Club as reported in the Nashville Republican Banner, I was able to commence a quick survey of my two favorite databases--Ancestry and Newspapers.com--to produce a brief biographical sketch of this Phoenix ballist.

 

Census records reveal that Cornelius Cassidy was born in 1841 in Allegany County, New York, located in a southern tier of the western portion of the state. He was born to Daniel and Catherine Cassidy, who, like hundreds of thousands of Irish, emigrated to the United States in the 1830s and especially the 1840s in the wake of the potato famine. The Cassidys arrived in Allegany County prior to the potato blight and, after a few years, moved northward and settled in the town of Mount Morris in Livingston, New York. There Daniel and Catherine remained for the rest of their lives, raising, depending on the source, somewhere between seven and twelve children. Neither Daniel nor Catherine could read or write; however, Daniel was able to carve out a decent living on a modest salary as a laborer to purchase some land on which he built his home and was able to send each of his children to school.

 

As Cornelius came of age, he began working for Reuben Porter Wisner, a local attorney and capitalist who became the president of a railroad that brought prosperity to the western regions of New York. Wisner played an instrumental role in further developing what was the village of Rochester into a significant city that became home to prominent abolitionist and women's rights reformers such as Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony. When the American Civil War broke out, Wisner became colonel of the 58th NY while Cornelius would later enlist in late August 1862 as a private in Company F of the 136th NY Infantry Regiment. 

Col. Reuben Porter Wisner

Con Cassidy and the men of the 136th NY received their baptism by fire at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. The regiment was lucky, losing only a few men in what was a Confederate victory. It would be the only significant loss (battle/campaign) for the 136th NY during the American Civil War. That said, the 136th would not be so lucky in their next engagement, nearly two months later at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. They fought valiantly in the first two days of the battle, holding back advancing Rebel lines to maintain the high ground; however, that defense came at a huge cost--109 men killed, wounded, and/or missing. Following Union victory at Gettysburg, the 136th NY was dispatched to the Western Theater and Chattanooga, Tennessee where they fought at Missionary Ridge. They then followed General William T. Sherman and his Union army's advance to Atlanta, fighting a series of battles at Rocky Face Ridge, Resaca, Cassville, Dallas, and Kennesaw Mountain before beginning the siege of Atlanta. Next came the "March to the Sea" as Union armies cut a one hundred mile swath through Georgia before taking Savannah in December 1864. Sherman's massive army, the 136th NY included, then turned northward, trekking through the Carolinas before meeting General Joseph E. Johnston and his Rebel army at Bennett Place in North Carolina. There, in late April 1865, Johnston agreed to Sherman's terms of surrender.

Cornelius C. Cassidy, 136th NY Infantry Rgt. Co. F

Cassidy quickly rose up the ranks to Sgt. Major before being promoted to First Lieutenant at the close of the war. By all accounts, Con Cassidy served with great distinction and avoided any serious illness or wounds during his thirty-four months in the service of his country. Once Johnston had surrendered to Sherman, Cassidy and the men of the 136th NY marched to Washington, D.C. where they participated in the second day of the Grand Review of the Union Army. Two weeks later, Cassidy and the 136th NY were officially mustered out of service on June 13, 1865. Cassidy returned home to his family and worked in Mount Morris for a brief stint before leaving for the South. Whether he left on his own accord or followed other former Union soldiers who were welcomed in Southern cities such as Nashville, Memphis, and Knoxville in Tennessee after the war is unknown, but he soon appeared in Nashville in 1866 working as a clerk. Within a short span of time Cassidy joined Nashville's Metropolitan Police Force and was quickly regarded as one of the city's finest policeman. Cassidy appeared in several articles in which he might have gained both a positive and negative reputation for his participation in the arrests of high-profile criminals as well as some violent encounters. It was not uncommon for Cassidy to drag someone in who had been on the losing end of a fist fight. For example, one individual's face, in the words of the editor of the Republican Banner, "looked like a badly lithographed copy of the battle-field of Chicamauga [sic], torn up by impossible and erratic cannon balls." Cassidy's luck in surviving the horrors of war on the battlefield appears to have carried over into his work as an officer on the beat. On one occasion, a drunkard named John White called Officer Cassidy over towards him. As Cassidy neared, White raised up his right arm to reveal a Derringer pistol in his hand. White fired, but the ball narrowly missed Cassidy who quickly apprehended the drunk man. Interestingly, Cassidy refused to prosecute White and let him go.

 

Cassidy was also known to engage in horse racing. He had a horse named "Waybill" that he entered in "trotting races" for prizes as high as $75 (about $1450.00 in today's money). Cassidy appears to have served on the police force for about two years before taking a position as a bookkeeper for a local firm. For reasons unknown, Cassidy abruptly left Nashville in either late 1869 or early 1870 and returned home to Mount Morris, New York. It can be assumed that the cause of his departure was a sudden illness because sources indicate that Con Cassidy passed away at the age of twenty-nine on May 14, 1870 as a result of consumption, a common term in the 19th century for wasting away of the body, particularly from pulmonary tuberculosis (note: find-a-grave incorrectly lists Cassidy as having died in 1871. It is difficult to see from the blurry photograph posted on that site, but it is possible that the headstone incorrectly states 1871).

 

Cornelius C. Cassidy's Grave, Old Cemetery, Mount Morris, NY

Both of Con Cassidy's parents outlived him, Daniel passing away also of consumption on December 18, 1893 and his mother, Catherine, living to the age of eighty before passing on November 5, 1902.

 

Perhaps more research into Nashville's newspapers will reveal additional Phoenix ballists. I have managed to compile a list of ballists along with some biographical information for those who played on the 1868 Nashville Base Ball Club and will possibly write on a few of them in the coming days or weeks. But for now, my agent informs me that I need to get that article on the origins of base ball in Knoxville completed!